In the past two years, there’s been way too much L2 narrative—everyone talks about TPS or ecosystems, but the key issue is simple:

Is there actually anyone using this chain every day?

Celo, this OG chain, doesn’t play by the usual rules. It focuses on hard use cases like stablecoin transfers, cross-border remittances, and mobile payments.

And Celo is very likely the next ZCash-type opportunity—not because it’s becoming a privacy coin, but because it’s also betting on:
Long-term demand for low-cost transactions and enhanced privacy.

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What exactly is Celo @Celo doing?

Just think of Celo as a global payment rail on Ethereum:
▰ Sub-cent transaction fees, about 1 second finality
▰ Gas can be paid directly with USDT/USDC (no need to buy the native token first)
▰ 700K+ daily active users, mainly from real use cases like remittances and micropayments

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Why might Celo be the next ZCash opportunity?

ZCash benefited from:
The premium on low-cost + privacy-enhanced transactions.

Celo’s comparable logic is:
1. Also emphasizes low-cost transactions and enhanced privacy for daily users;
2. Celo leverages fee abstraction and stablecoin dominance to build a stronger usability moat, similar to ZCash’s shielded adoption but with broader scenarios.

Celo’s activity isn’t just from DeFi. In emerging markets like Africa, it’s more about P2P transfers, bill payments, and savings—real everyday scenarios.

Even more crucial is revenue: In 2024–2025, chain revenue is seeing exponential growth, with monthly revenue up more than 10x since January 2024.

Stablecoin transfer volumes have hit milestones too: nearly $3 billion in stablecoin transfers in October, with more growth expected.

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The problem for many chains isn’t technology—it’s lack of users.

What makes Celo really different is:
It put the wallet directly into the Opera Mini browser and standalone apps, creating an extremely strong distribution funnel.

Key metrics are almost at “Web2 level,” including:
▰ Over 11 million activated wallets
▰ 300+ million on-chain transactions processed
▰ Coverage in 60+ countries/regions
▰ Wallet growth of 175% YoY, with significant expansion in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya, the US, etc.

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There’s another easily overlooked direction for Celo:
It’s not just doing consumer payments—it’s also adding a “privacy layer” for enterprise payments/B2B settlement.

EY Nightfall is already deployed on Celo as Layer 3, focusing on enterprise-grade zero-knowledge privacy for B2B/high-value payments.

The significance of this step as I see it:
When a chain’s goal is to be a “global payment rail,” privacy and compliance-friendly payment capabilities are inevitable. Nightfall is Celo taking usability one step further towards commercial viability.

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Looking at it today, Celo’s advantage isn’t in narrative, but in choosing the right path:
Celo is directly targeting hard demand areas like stablecoin payments, cross-border remittances, and mobile finance, and is using real distribution channels like MiniPay to bring in more users.

Of course, the risks are also real:
The payments race will ultimately come down to compliance, channels, and product experience. Whether growth will be sustainable and whether the fee model can last long-term still needs time to be proven.